


Subject to Change

by EverybodyLovesEggsy



Series: Eternal, Unchanging Love [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Not Epilogue Compliant, Patronus, Slow Burn, Soul Bond, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:48:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22534225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EverybodyLovesEggsy/pseuds/EverybodyLovesEggsy
Summary: (AKA That Which is Hidden Until Severus Realizes the Truth)Severus is drawn to Lily, but Lily is not drawn to Severus. She is drawn to James. True to form, Lily and James’s Patronuses are female and male deer to reflect that they are soul bound. Severus’s doe Patronus, and his soul’s pull, make him think that he is bound to Lily, even though Lily is not bound to him. So, Severus think he is without a requited soul bond. Unknown to him, there is a reason – in the shape of a person not yet born – why Severus is drawn to Lily, even though she is not his soul bound. Luckily, it doesn’t take long for Severus to come across the truth.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Severus Snape
Series: Eternal, Unchanging Love [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1621339
Comments: 5
Kudos: 66





	1. Not Quite Drowning in Grief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: This Chapter is pretty much the same as the first chapter of That Which is Hidden, until about halfway through where it is very different. After this Chapter, this story is completely different from That Which is Hidden

Something was wrong. He could feel it in his soul. The pull that was coming from his soul bound was stronger than Severus has ever felt it before.

_Something was wrong._

Severus quickly followed the pull and apparated, risking a splinch by not having a set destination in mind other than to his soul bound. To Lily.

Somehow, Severus made it without splinching himself, and Godric’s Hollow came into view. Dread filled Severus. The house was visible. The fidelity charm was broken. Severus quickly made his way towards the house.

Focusing on the pull, on the only hope Severus had left that his soul bound might still be alive, he made his way into the house. Just inside, Severus hesitated at the sight of James Potters’s body sprawled in front of the stairs. Fear at what else he would find filled him. He took a breath, the blood rushing in his ears almost deafening, and stepped around Potter’s body to head up the stairs.

Severus fell to his knees at the sight of Lily lying lifeless on the floor, and gathered her up in his arms. A howl ripped itself from his chest when he felt the strength of the pull fading, almost as if his soul needed to see that she was dead in order to believe it. Wrapped up in his grief, it wasn’t until his own sobs began to quiet that he registered the sobbing of another, of Lily’s infant son. Severus looked over at the boy and when his dark eyes met tear-filled, green ones. He felt the pull of the soul bond flare.

Severus stared at Lily’s son – Harry – in shock. All of this time, he thought Lily was his bound. But the pull wasn’t for her, but the child she was destined to carry. The child that was somehow alive when his parents weren’t.

Severus moved his gaze from Harry’s brilliant green eyes – just like Lily’s – to the bleeding cut on Harry’s forehead. A cut in the same shape as the wand movement needed to use the killing curse. Severus inhaled with realization. The Dark Lord was dead.

Severus snapped himself out of his thoughts and gently laid Lily’s body back down to the floor. He then stood up, moved over to the crib, and gently scooped Harry up into his arms and held him against his chest. Despite everything that had happened that night, Harry’s sobs quieted into little sniffles and the boy gripped Severus’s cloak. As if he could feel who Severus was to him. Severus watched for a second as silent tears continued to fall from the boy’s eyes. Severus pressed a cheek against Harry’s – his _soul bound_ ’s – head, both giving and taking comfort. Lily was dead and there was nothing Severus could do to change that, as much as he and Harry wished it so.

But somehow, Harry had survived. The last living piece of Lily and his soul bound. Although the Dark Lord was dead, Severus knew that the danger had not passed. Death Eaters would be calling for Harry’s blood in revenge for killing their master.

Severus closed his eyes as felt a surge of protectiveness flow through him and he whispered to the boy in his arms, “No matter what happens, you will always have me. I promise, I will do everything within my power to protect you, Harry.”

Severus opened his eyes to see Harry yawn, eyes drooping and Severus’s robes still gripped in his little fist. Severus rubbed Harry’s back soothingly and headed towards the door. Just before exiting, he looked back at Lily’s body, grief flowing through him once more. Severus took a breath and turned away, quietly leaving the nursery as Harry fell asleep in his arms.


	2. For Protection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything in italics is a flashback

Severus was sitting on his couch at Spinner’s End, head in his hands. Next to him was a glass of fire whiskey he had poured himself after downing his first. It was taking all the self-control he had not to go check on his soul bound.

After leaving the nursery with a sleeping Harry, Severus had been confronted by the headmaster. At the sight of him carrying Harry, it didn’t take long for Dumbledore to understand what was going on.

_“Severus?”_

_Severus swallowed and forcefully pushed his grief behind his Occlumency behind his shields. Still unable to speak through the lump in his throat, he shook his head._

_“Alas, it is as I feared. And Voldemort?”_

_Severus ignored the unusually weak twinge the Dark Mark gave at the name, “Dead.”_

_“Yet you carry young Harry in your arms… I wonder…” Dumbledore looked down at the boy in his arms and said, “He will need to be taken to his family. Hagrid can –”_

_Unable to help himself at the thought of Harry being taken away, Severus growled, causing Dumbledore to look up at him in surprise._

_“Severus?”_

_Severus didn’t respond aside from tightening his grip on Harry slightly. Dumbledore watched the movement before understanding filled his gaze._

_“Ah. So, you have finally found your soul bound. It is quite interesting that he ended up being the son of your beloved friend and most hated enemy.”_

_Severus glared at that comment, which seemed to pull Dumbledore out of him musings with a shake of his head._

_“Alas, as happy as it makes me that you have finally found your bound, my boy, I’m afraid you must allow him to be taken to his family.”_

_“And why **must** I allow that?” Severus could help the bite in his tone. No way in hell was he going to just give Harry up._

_But the tone didn’t seem to deter the headmaster, “Why, for his protection of course. As I am sure you know, with his parents sacrifice, it is possible to enact blood wards if he lives with a close blood relation. With Voldemort defeated, I fear his followers will come after young Harry in revenge.”_

_Knowing exactly who Dumbledore would have to use for the blood wards, Severus growled, “You wish to put him with Petunia? After that spiteful hag made Lily’s life miserable?”_

_“I am afraid it is the only way, my boy. He must be protected.”_

_The Potion Master narrowed his eyes at the other man. He knew the headmaster was being too adamant about the protection Harry needed for this to be solely about Death Eaters taking revenge. So, what else would Harry need protection from? With the Dark Lord gone –_

_Severus stopped that train of thought with dawning horror. The Dark Mark still twinged when the Dark Lord’s name was spoken. It was weak but still there. Which meant he was not dead. Severus closed his eyes and took a breath._

_“You think he will return.”_

_Dumbledore nodded gravely, “I am afraid so. And the only protection I can think of that will be strong enough to protect young Harry until the time comes are the blood wards. So you see, Severus, Harry must go to his family.”_

_Severus leaned his forehead against Harry’s soft black hair and took a breath. His heart, his **soul** , rebelled at the thought of Harry being taken away from when Severus could and **would** protect the boy. He had the urge to flee with his soul bound and take him away from any who would harm him or take him away. But as his heart raged at the thought, his mind slowly agreed with the headmaster. There were very few better ward protections than blood wards, and Severus knew his home did not have one of them. As much as he hated it, Severus knew the best way to protect Harry would be to put him behind the blood wards. _

_With a whisper, Severus placed a monitoring charm on his soul bound – just in case, for his own piece of mind – before looking back up at the headmaster and nodding his acceptance._

_Dumbledore quickly summoned Hagrid with a Patronus and before Severus knew it, the half-giant was leaving with his soul bound._

_Dumbledore turned to Severus, “I am sorry, my boy.”_

_Severus turned away and apparated to Spinner’s End._

After arriving at his home, he had immediately went to his alcohol cabinet but it did not make his desire to go to Harry’s new home – number four Privet Drive, Surrey, he had heard the headmaster tell Hagrid – any less.

That was when a thought occurred to Severus. Just because it was safer for Harry to live with _Petunia_ – Severus couldn’t stop the sneer at the thought of that woman – behind the blood wards, didn’t mean that Severus would have to wait to see Harry again. After all, someone had to check to make sure Harry safe every now and then, Severus thought with a smirk. In fact, Severus would go there in the morning to do just that – discreetly, of course, because he was just checking up on his soul bound, and he had no need or want to become reacquainted with Petunia.

Severus nodded to himself, resolved, and stood. He downed the drink that remained in his glass and put the fire whiskey back in its cabinet before heading to his bed, anticipating the next day’s plans.


	3. Frequent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's age: fifteen months to two years old

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a bit longer than the last two as any chapters following this one will be. I hope you guys enjoy!

Number Four, Privet Drive, looked exactly like every other house on its block. Severus couldn’t help the sneer when he saw the neighborhood; it inspired no creativity and, going by the lack of diverse people inhabiting it, it bred judgement towards people who were any modicum of ‘different’. Overall, an awful place for any magical to live and it made Severus’s urge to just take his soul bound and flee that much stronger.

He sighed, perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea. This place was going to seriously test his self-control and Severus wasn’t sure he would be able to just leave Harry here if something, namely Petunia, pushed him past his patience for idiotic, self-absorbed muggles. At the same time, he couldn’t make himself leave without at least seeing Harry.

The Potions Master took a breath and walked across the street, still under the very strong disillusionment charm that he had applied upon arriving. He made his way over to the house until he was standing at the front window. Inside, he could see a whale-of-a-man sitting next to a thin, horse-faced woman, who he recognized as Petunia, sitting on the couch watching television. On the floor at their feet sat a beachball-of-a-boy, who he presumed to be their son, playing with some toys.

Just as Severus was going to worry about where his soul bound was, Harry toddled in on unsteady legs. The Potions Master’s heart lurched when he saw that Harry’s face was tear-stained. He closed his eyes and took a breath, forcing himself not to move from where he was. Severus wanted nothing more than to go and cuddle the boy in an attempt to comfort him. It was a rather odd feeling for him, but he figured that he would have to get used to it considering this was his soul bound.

Severus opened his eyes and was disappointed to see that Harry was gone. Petunia was as well, so he assumed she had gone to change or feed or perhaps even comfort the fifteen-month-old. Now that Severus had seen that Harry was relatively okay, if a little sad – as to be expected – he knew he should leave. With a sigh, the Potions Master turned away from the window and headed for the apparition point. Severus would be unable to pull himself away if he tried to leave while Harry was in view, so it was probably a good thing the boy had disappeared. Even so, he desperately wished he could see the boy for more than just a few minutes through a window. No doubt he would be doing a lot of brewing during his free time in order to keep his mind off of Harry.

Severus sighed again and apparated away.

***

Indeed, he did brew as a distraction. Until he was arrested the next morning, anyways.

He honestly should not have been surprised at being arrested the next morning. After all, the Dark Lord was vanquished and the Dark Mark was still present on his arm. But Severus’s mind had been consumed with thoughts of his soul bound that it hadn’t occurred to him that he still needed to prove that he had spied for the light.

He had visited Harry fairly early the day before – ten in the morning because he had been unable wait longer – so he found himself with an abundance of free time that Sunday, especially after he finished grading. Therefore, he brewed in order to, unsuccessfully, keep his mind off his soul bound, until going to bed late that evening.

When he was woken up early the next morning by a pounding on the door to his rooms, and luckily had the presence of mind to change out of sleep clothes, it took an embarrassingly long moment for him to realize _why_ there were Aurors at his door, demanding that he turn himself in peacefully. Not that anybody noticed his realization or embarrassment, thanks to his habitual neutral mask having been in place. He, of course, allowed himself to be arrested without a fight, knowing that it would be the only way to prove his loyalties.

As Severus was paraded – because the Aurors were not trying to be discreet in any sense of the word, much to his annoyance – through Hogwarts, he glared at the students whispering about him being a Death Eater. He had to hold back a smirk of satisfaction when those he glared at cowered in fear; at least his dungeon bat reputation would flourish after he was released, due to his arrest.

Along the way, he met the shocked gazes of both Minerva McGonagall and Filius Flitwick; idly, Severus wondered if either would ever trust him again. Probably not. Pity; those two are the only ones he truly respected and had become rather fond of, especially since neither had ever judged him while he was at Hogwarts – as either a student or his short time as a professor – and even went out of their way to speak with him despite his prickly exterior. Severus mourned the loss of the reluctant – on his part – friendship he had formed with the two.

Upon reaching the apparition point, the Slytherin was taken to the Ministry holding cells. He made himself comfortable as he could, knowing he would likely not receive a trial until the end of the week. Even with Dumbledore’s interference. Severus sighed and resigned himself to not being able to visit his soul bound any time soon.

It was funny how much of his thoughts had become centered around the little boy after so little time together, Severus thought.

***

Two days later, Severus was released from the Ministry. Somehow, Dumbledore had been able to get his trial fast-tracked and, as promised, defended him by claiming the Potions Master had been a spy the whole time. While not technically true – he hadn’t begun spying until he found out that the Dark Lord was going to go after Lily – Severus appreciated the man’s lie because, had he told the truth, there were enough people who visibly doubted him, that he would not have been released without the small lie. The trial also proved to Severus exactly how much of a master manipulator the Headmaster is; the Potions Master watched as the man slowly but easily convinced the Wizengamot that Severus was innocent, without needing Severus’s input at all. He had been sure that the Wizengamot was going to demand the use of Veritaserum, but Dumbledore convinced them that he was innocent before the suggestion could even be made.

It made him extremely thankful that he had the Chief Warlock on his side.

After retrieving his wand, Severus had apparated back to Hogwarts and headed towards the man’s office, knowing Dumbledore would want to speak with him. Now, standing just outside of the Headmaster’s office door, the Potions Master hesitated. When Severus had gone to Dumbledore for Lily’s protection, the man had said he would speak of Severus’s change of heart after the Dark Lord was dead; however, he had never expected the Headmaster to lie for him. The Slytherin in him couldn’t help but worry about what the man would ask for in return for getting him released completely. Severus took a breath and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

The Potions Master entered the office and nodded, “Headmaster.”

“Severus, my boy! How many times must I tell you to call me Albus? Please, sit!”

Taking a seat across from the Headmaster, Severus turned down the offer of tea and lemon drops.

“Now, what can I do for you?”

Severus resisted raising an eyebrow at the man’s pleasantries, “I figured you would want to see me after I was released.”

“Ah, well, you were quite correct. I was going to offer you the rest of the week to yourself, considering everything that has happened in the past week. I am adept enough in Potions to cover your Thursday and Friday classes and you can return teaching on Monday.”

With narrowed eyes, Severus asked, “Why?”

Albus’s eyes twinkled as he smiled at him, “Always the Slytherin”, the man blinked and his facial expression sobered, the twinkle disappearing, “I thought that you could take the next few days to grieve for Lily. I know she meant a lot to you.”

Severus closed his eyes and swallowed thickly at the reminder. He had honestly pushed his friend’s death to the back of his mind, not wanting to think about it. While, due to his discovering his soul bound, he now realized that he hadn’t been in love with Lily the way he thought – he loved her, but was not in love with her – her death didn’t hurt any less. Severus would never earn Lily’s forgiveness and Harry would never know his mother. The Potions Master opened his eyes and stood quickly.

“Thank you, Headmaster–”

“Albus.”

“…Albus. I will take you up on your offer and return to teaching on Monday.”

Albus smiled sadly at Severus, “I am glad. Do not worry about attending meals or anything else as I am sure Minerva and I can cover everything.”

The Potions Master nodded and quickly left the man’s office. As he was heading back to the apparition point that he had just come from not half an hour ago, Severus belatedly realized that his display probably made the Headmaster think he was trying to avoid grieving in front of him. He internally shrugged; it would make the Headmaster less likely to find out that he was visiting Harry because, while the assumption was partially true, the thought of Harry probably missing his mother had made Severus want nothing more than to cuddle the boy for both of their comfort. Since he was unable to do that, he would settle for visiting his soul bound, once again seeing that he was alright through a window, and hoped the comfort of being within proximity to one another would be enough, even if Harry wouldn’t understand what the feeling was.

The Potions Master reached the apparition point and popped away to Privet Drive. He cast a disillusionment charm on himself once more and made his way to Number Four. Just like his first visit, Severus stood at the window and looked in. This time, the living room was empty of everybody but Harry. The little boy was sitting at the coffee table and had a crayon grasped in his little fist, haphazardly coloring the way only a small child would. He watched as the fifteen-month-old fidgeted in his seat as he colored. Then every minute or so, Harry would look up and look at the equally empty dining room which, presumably, led to the kitchen, then look to the doorway that Severus figured led to the entryway and the stairs, before turning back to his coloring. The Potions Master could see that Harry was restraining himself from leaving the room, making Severus wonder where Petunia and her two lumps of fat were.

Before he could do more than frown at the thought, the horse-faced women appeared, partially hidden by the doorway to the entryway and only obviously her by her thin frame. She then said something to his soul bound, causing the boy to get up from his place at the coffee table and toddle over to her and then following her out.

Severus sighed at, once again, only being able to see his soul bound for a few minutes through a window. At least this time there was no evidence of tears on the boy. Taking comfort in that, he left the window and apparated away.

***

Four days later, the Potions Master decided to visit Harry again. For that entire weekend, Severus allowed himself to grieve for Lily – meaning he switched between destroying things (all of which had been owned by his father) in the house on Spinner’s End while quite drunk, staring blankly at the ceiling after he nursed a hangover, and brewing after taking a sober-up potion a few hours later – until he woke up that Sunday and decided that it was time to pull himself out of his misery. Especially considering he would have to return to Hogwarts that night so he could teach in the morning. So, Severus cleaned himself up, thankful he hadn’t drunken enough to have a hangover the night before – ignoring the fact that was only true because he had finally broken down and just cried himself to sleep before he had the chance to drink himself to a stupor – and decided that he was going to see his soul bound and then return to Hogwarts and brew the rest of the day.

He arrived at Number Four, Privet Drive the exact same way as the first two visits and looked through the window, trying to ignore how much he felt like a stalker with all of this window peeking; he had to repeatedly remind himself that was just very invested in his soul bound’s physical and mental well-being.

Like the last time he visited, Harry was once again by himself in the living room, coloring with broken crayons, and looking up to see if anybody had come into the room every time he lost interest in coloring (which was fairly frequent, considering his age). Severus frowned, concerned that this was looked to be a frequent thing. Although his knowledge on children this young, he knew fifteen-months was too young to be leaving the boy alone. So why did he keep finding Harry by himself?

Petunia once again made an appearance, cutting Severus’s thoughts off. Perhaps Severus just kept coming by when Petunia walked away for just minute before returning. Nodding to himself, Severus pushed his doubts away and left as soon as Harry was out of sight once more.

***

The Potions Master returned to teaching the next day. Due to classes, the next visit he was able to take to see Harry was a week later. Every visit after that for the next month and a half occurred once a week. Much like his previous visits, he either found Harry coloring by himself or the Dursleys watching television. When he found Harry by himself, Petunia always came in only a few minutes later, while, if the Dursleys were watching the television, Severus could be able to see Harry moving around, doing _something_ – he hadn’t been able to figure out what – in the dining room. The times he found Harry alone still concerned him, just as he wondered what a sixteen-month-old would be doing in the dining room by himself and why wasn’t he spending time with his family. But, while it worried him, Severus knew from experience that things could be much worse for his bound than being a little lonely at the lack of his family’s attention, so he didn’t think too much on it. Nevertheless, he made sure to keep a close eye on the situation appearance just in case it _was_ worse than a little loneliness or Severus’s bad timing in visiting.

Then a weekend came when the weekly visits caught up to Severus and put the Potions Master behind on his brewing. While the visits themselves only lasted about ten minutes of Severus looking through the window – Severus cringed at the way that thought sounded – the time it took to get to and from apparition points made the visits take about half an hour of his time. While normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, it was the season for students to get sick and go to the hospital wing for potions, causing Severus to fall behind on his brewing. As Potions Master of the school, he was to supposed to be keeping the hospital wing stocked, which was forcing him to skip a visit so he could catch up, meaning he had to wait two weeks until he could return to Surrey. Having seen that Harry was mostly fine whenever he had visited him, Severus grudgingly decided that it would be okay to space the visits following that one to every two weeks so that he didn’t fall behind in his responsibilities again. Especially since it was his turn to watch the brats who stayed at Hogwarts during Yule holiday and he didn’t want to let his colleagues – Filius and Minerva, who surprisingly stood by him after he was released – or, more importantly, Dumbledore, in on his visits to Harry.

With the Potions Master only visiting twice a month starting just before Yule holiday, it wasn’t until Harry’s second birthday – Severus’s twenty-fifth visit in the nine months since that Halloween, not that he was counting or anything – did Severus find out how bad the situation truly was for Harry. Severus had made sure to visit on his soul bound’s birthday, despite it only being a week after the visit before, in the hope of being able to sneak a small gift to the boy. Just like every other time he visited, the Potions Master apparated to Privet Drive with a disillusionment charm and walked to Number Four’s window to peek in and try and spot his soul bound. Reminiscent of Severus’s first visit, Petunia and the whale were watching television while their beachball sat on the floor playing with some toys. Severus could see no movement in the dining room like the previous times he had visited.

There was no sign of Harry.

The Potions Master frowned, where could the boy be? It was only ten in the morning so he should be just as awake as the beachball. At two years old, Harry was still rather reliant on adults, so Severus couldn’t think of a single thing he could be doing. Then again, he had yet to see the boy actually _with_ Petunia or the whale since that first visit. Unless he had gotten in trouble and confined to his room, or a corner, or something?

Before Severus could consider it further, he saw the whale say something to the hag, causing her to stand and leave the room. Hoping she was going to get Harry, the Potions Master quickly snuck over the front door and peeked through the window on the door. From there he saw Petunia enter the hallway and move to the cupboard under the stairs. Disappointment filled Severus and he was just about to walk back over to the front window, hoping that he had just missed Harry before, when he saw that Petunia was talking. With a frown, he stayed rooted to his spot to see what was going on.

Horror rushed through Severus when Harry’s little form emerged from the closet. Anger coursed through him as he watched the hag slam the cupboard door shut, causing Harry to flinch, and roughly dragged the boy by his shirt, down the hall and out of sight.

How _dare_ they shove him in a cupboard! And by Harry’s hunched form and lack of tears, this was a _normal occurrence_! Severus was _furious_!

He quickly slammed his occlumency shields down in an attempt to stop himself from outright murdering the muggles right then and there; while every part of him had no reservation about making them pay, he couldn’t afford to alert Dumbledore to what he was doing, or put Harry in any type of danger. Once he was sure he would be able to control himself, Severus walked back to the window to see what was going to happen next. Only a minute or two later, he saw his soul bound slowly walking in as carefully as a two-year-old knew how, carrying a tray filled with sandwiches and tea.

Severus’s anger flared once more. Not only were they locking him way like an unwanted dog, they were making him into a _servant_! If he did nothing, he was _sure_ that they would treat him like their own personal house elf.

The Potions Master fumed as he watched Harry being treated like a house elf while the rest of the family enjoyed tea time, the beachballs gorging themselves on the sandwiches, the hag picking at hers in an awful attempt at being prim and proper. Harry, he noticed, got _nothing_ from those pigs. It made him wonder how often, they actually fed him. At the thought, horror filled him once more and he scrutinized his soul bound’s appearance.

Harry was skinny, but that wasn’t hard to be when standing next to the whales, and his clothes hung off of his frame. Upon closer inspection, he realized those rags probably belonged to the baby beachball with how large they were. The made Harry look even skinnier, but also hid what was obviously malnutrition from Harry’s gaunt appearance. Severus wouldn’t be surprised if he could see the boy’s ribs with no issue. The realization only made him more furious. He had to repeatedly list off all of the reasons that he couldn’t just remove the boy to calm himself down enough not to do anything about it.

Once Severus felt calm enough not to burst through the house’s front door and take his soul bound away, he slowly unclenched his hands that he didn’t even remember clenching, unsurprised to find blood there. He whispered a healing a spell on his palms and considered his options. He couldn’t take Harry away because he didn’t have a safe place to protect Harry from Death Eaters, or the emergence of the Dark Lord when he did return. Nor would he be able to protect him from Dumbledore’s manipulations, who would most likely remove Harry from Severus’s care and then memory charm him so that he wouldn’t remember that Harry was his bound, let alone that the boy needed protection from his _relatives_. So that made removing him out of the question. Which meant he couldn’t kill the muggles no matter how much he wanted to.

But just because he couldn’t kill them, didn’t mean that he couldn’t torment them. Severus smirked in what he was sure could be viewed as bloodthirsty. What better way to do that, than to terrify them into treating Harry better? A nightmare spell, plaguing them with the feeling of being used as a servant and shoved into a dark closet that was too small for them to move, along with a few threats and a small _demonstration_ of how serious those threats are ought to do the trick. He felt his smirk widen as he thought of all of the possible threats and demonstrations he could use on the whale and the hag.

Decision made, Severus settled in at the window to wait until after it was dark, when the children were sleeping, to enforce his plan. Every time he became enraged at the Dursleys’ treatment of his soul bound, Severus listed all of the ways that he torment them in his head to stop himself from doing anything sooner than planned.

When night fell and the children and the Dursleys’ were asleep, Severus whispered an alohomora to the locked front door and entered the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to clarify why every time Severus visits and Harry is alone a bit. It should be fairly explanatory but for those interested, here is my thought process: The main reason is because the Dursley’s neglect Harry when he is little. They hate Harry and eventually abuse him, but they don’t begin the abuse until he shows himself to be a wizard, because in their heads the abuse is acceptable because they are trying to ‘beat the freak out of him’. However, Petunia doesn’t tell Vernon about the magical world until the accidental magic so, at first, he is not someone that needs a beating because he is just an unwanted burden that they had no say in. This leads them to neglecting Harry and refuse to give him a bedroom because he was never supposed to be there to take up space to begin with and shove him in the cupboard in an out-of-sight-out-of-mind kind of thing. Since Harry is barely able to walk when he comes to them, he is not yet assigned chores or being forced to cook, but sometime by the time he turns 2, he is forced to serve the tea and the food that Petunia has made. When Severus visits, he only sees the Dursleys neglect insofar as seeing that they are never around Harry and just Severus just happens to not show up the times he is around the Dursleys, which is really only to change him (until he potty trains himself fairly early at 17 months out of necessity) and feed him (meaning Petunia gives him the bare minimum of whatever she has made and he is sent to his cupboard to eat). So, Severus sees Harry by himself and not the full extent of neglect or their disdain for Harry by chance for the most part. I didn’t include this in the story because it mostly just helped me write it but decided to add it down here for anybody who was wondering why I set it up the way I did. :)


End file.
